Officials grilled about policies that allow suspended coaches to continue working with young athletes

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Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, center left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., attend a news conference with dozens of women and girls who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar, a former doctor for Michigan State University athletics and USA Gymnastics, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

USA Gymnastics and U.S. Center for Safe Sport policies that allow coaches suspended for sexual misconduct to continue working with young athletes came under fire during a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday in which USA Gymnastics, U.S. Olympic and Michigan State officials continued to face criticism for their handling of sexual abuse cases.

USA Gymnastics president Kerry Perry acknowledged flaws in policies in which some coaches under investigation for sexual misconduct offenses continued to have supervised contact with minor aged athletes pending their disciplinary hearings.

Perry asked for congressional help in fixing the policies at one point during a Senate subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety, insurance and data security that spent much of its time focusing the suspended coaches continuing coach issue.

One of the coaches, Terry Gray, a former U.S. national team coach, is suspended while being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct but still trains girls at SCEGA, a gym in Temecula. Gray can have no “unsupervised contact with minors” under the terms of his suspension.

“The article was absolutely correct in that this illustrates a systemic and structural challenge that we have,” Perry told the Senate panel.

A day in which Capitol Hill returned its focus to the Larry Nassar/Karolyi Ranch sex abuse scandal got off to an emotionally powerful start. More than 80 survivors of Nassar’s abuse appeared at a lunchtime press conference with members of the Senate subcommittee.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said the women abused by Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics, U.S. Olympic Committee and Michigan State team physician, were “survivors of the crime.”

“That’s the word. Crime. Not just bad behavior. It is criminal conduct of the most heinous, unspeakable kind,” Blumenthal continued. “As a parent, my worst nightmare. For young athletes, their dream shattered. And we need to be very honest the risk for other athletes continues. Indeed in the news today there are reports of coaches in Southern California still working at gymnastics clubs despite bans against them for this criminal misconduct. We need to do better. And this place on a very bi-partisan basis should come together to make sure that there are reforms that stop the kind of institutional failures. Let’s be very blunt, institutional failures on the part of USAG, the U.S. Olympic Committee, other governing boards in other sports.

“These crimes were not limited to gymnastics and the risk continues today because of (a failure to close) these lapses. That risk is intolerable. And the lapses and loopholes that contributed to these failures of reporting and accountability also continue today.

“The reason for these crimes is very simply that responsible officials put more and medals over athlete’s safety. And so they looked the other way, they turned a blind eye, they ignored the truth that was right before their eyes. They are as much morally responsible as those criminals who committed this abuse.

“They’re going to have to look at the mirror and history will look at them for years to come.”

Blumenthal later turned over the microphone to Ashton Locklear, a 2014 World Championships gold medalist.

“My name is Ashton Locklear,” she told the audience. “I’m 20 years old. I was first abused by Larry Nassar when I was 16. The USAG, USOC and Michigan State failed me.”

For the better part of an hour each woman stepped forward stated their current age, their age when Nassar first abused them and then closed with the tagline that USA Gymnastics, the USOC and Michigan State “failed me.”

Both Blumenthal and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), the subcommittee chairman, grilled Perry at length over the policies and events that resulted in Gray continuing to coach at SCEGA and another suspended coach Colden Raisher to work with young girls at Klub Gymnastics in Los Angeles.

Blumenthal entered the Register report into the official record of the hearing.

Raisher, like Gray, is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with minors. Raisher said the allegations against him are not related to sexual or physical abuse.

“I don’t understand the law and a system that the two people that are coaching in Southern California, the flaw that allows them to do that is what?” Moran asked Perry.

The Gray case, Perry said, illustrates “why we have such challenges” in balancing the need to protect young athletes from potentially predatory coaches while ensuring the rights of the accused.

USA Gymnastics was notified by the USOC created and funded U.S. Center for Safe Sport that Gray was under investigation for “sexual misconduct” but provided only limited details of the allegations, Perry said.

USA Gymnastics immediately issued an interim full suspension against Gray, prohibiting him from any contact with gymnastics until cleared in a disciplinary hearing, Perry said. Gray appealed the suspension under provisions in the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act.

The hearing panel lifted the interim full suspension, clearing the way for Gray to return to the gym coach minors with supervision. Safe Sport conducts all sexual misconduct investigations.

“In the Ted Stevens Act anybody that is removed from the field of play is entitled to a hearing,” Perry told the subcommittee.

“So you have that in play and you also have the Center which is also problematic in terms of this whole scenario that it is in charge of investigating and has complete jurisdiction over sexual misconduct. So the information they give to us to present to the hearing panel is very limited. So you’ve got this system that’s in place.”

Safe Sport officials did not testify at Tuesday’s hearing.

SCEGA director Kathy Strate echoed Perry’s frustration with a lack of information on sexual abuse cases. Perry testified that USA Gymnastics promptly informed SCECA of the suspension by email and first class mail. But Strate complained that the club was not immediately contacted by USA Gymnastics about the suspension.

Although Gray was suspended June 29, SCEGA officials did not confirm the action until three days after officials were told that Gray was on a suspended list on USA Gymnastics’ website by persons in the gymnastics community. SCEGA then called USA Gymnastics to confirm the ban. SCEGA received formal notification of the suspension by mail a day later.

USA Gymnastics, Strate said, told SCEGA “these allegations did not take place in our facility, and dated back to a 2012 allegation.”

“We have been given no other information,” Strate said.

Gray worked for Brown’s Gymnastics in Las Vegas in 2012. Gray is also under investigation for inappropriate behavior at a gym in Ohio, according to a person familiar with the investigation. He previously worked under Olympic team coach Mary Lee Tracy at Cincinnati Gymnastics, where he coached two Olympians.

Brown officials declined comment. Gray did not respond to requests for comment.

“Policies at SafeSport and USAG are still in a state of flux and gym owners are getting very limited information and input in the process,” said Russell Prince, an attorney for Gray.”… A complete investigation by the Center is in the best interests of Mr. Gray.”

“It doesn’t help,” Prince added, “that USAG can’t seem to get out of their own way.”

Scott M. Reid is a sports enterprise/investigative reporter for the Orange County Register. He also covers Olympic and international sports as well as the Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. His work for the Register has led to investigations by the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Legislature, and the national governing bodies for gymnastics and swimming. Reid's 2011 reporting on wide spread sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics and the governing body's failure to effectively address it led to Don Peters, coach of the 1984 record-setting Olympic team, being banned from the sport for life. His reporting also prompted USA Gymnastics to adopt new guidelines and policies dealing with sexual abuse. Reid's 2012 and 2013 reporting on sexual abuse within USA Swimming led to the banishment of two top level coaches. Reid has won 11 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting since 1999. He has also been honored by APSE for game writing, and enterprise, news, and beat reporting. He was an Investigative Reporters and Editors award finalist in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining the Register in 1996, Reid worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a B.A. in the History of the Americas from the University of Washington.